Hands-On: Motorola RAZR HD, MAXX HD, RAZR M

The RAZR M is a neat little phone. And when I say little, I mean little. It has a 4.3-inch display, which might suggest that it's big. However, it uses edge-to-edge screen technology that pushes the display to the outer rim of the device. The result is an incredibly small device that still offers a big-screen experience.

In basic appearance, it follows the family geneaology. It's obviously from Motorola's design labs, though it loses the high-quality metals of the RAZR HD and MAXX HD and substitutes plastics instead. The demo units they had on hand were white, and I found the white contrasts well with the dark Kevlar backing on the device.

RAZR M

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The small footprint is great, but so is the weight. The RAZR M hardly has any weight to it at all. It is slim, light, and will certainly slip into any pocket with ease.

The 4.3-inch display has 540 x 960 pixels, or qHD resolution. The pixel density is excellent. The demo units almost looked like they had fake stickers on them, so clean and clear were the images, text, and icons in the display. It is very bright, and I was able to read even the finest web site text with ease.

The controls on the outer edge of the phone are comfortable and bunched together on the right side. As with the RAZR HD and MAXX HD, the SIM card and microSD card are accessed on the left side. There's no trick tray, though, just a hatch that peels back so both cards can be accessed.

The RAZR M's best feature will surely be the price. Sure, it has an 8MP camera, NFC, Kevlar, 1080p HD video capture, and Gorilla Glass; but it also costs only $99.

That alone makes the RAZR M the best phone-for-the-money in Verizon's lineup.